Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Will you be my Valentine?

Thanks for the boot love yesterday, guys. I am bummed about breaking my shopping hiatus, but I feel good about the boots anyways and all your sweet comments helped.

On to V-day... yesterday I admitted that I love the holiday. It just makes me warm and fuzzy and not in a romantic sort of way. D and I don't do the fancy dinner or the gift giving or really anything at all. It just feels too forced, and we are the sort of people that end up making fun of each other instead. And this year, D is in Dubai studying Bedouin tents for a few weeks (I know, I know, lucky bastard) and he won't even be in town.

We do cards, though, because we love cards and make them for just about every occasion. I have some steep competition here, because D makes awesome cards. Witness this random assortment of cards and note that they are all made with lino cuts that he carved himself.

How insanely cute is that grinning eggplant?

Last year I made him this card. The claw is lino cut (by D actually, for a different project) and I added the red felt heart and the dripping blood. The inscription reads "you've got my heart."

Of course, I also send cards to all my family, every year. They might think it's a little strange, but I think they have fun getting them. This year, wildly excited at the prospect of my first Valentine's day with a sewing machine, I played around with stitches and colored thread.

These are simple flat cards and I used a paper punch to round the corners. I cut out hearts from my trusty outdated science publications and then spray glued them to the cards. I also printed out the lettering and mounted it on cardstock before affixing it to the cards. Then I just played around with stitching in coral and garnet. No two are exactly alike. These babies are in the mail as of this morning.

You can think about the boot buying not as a breaking of the shopping hiatus, but as an achieving exactly what the shopping hiatus was supposed to do. You didn't rush out and buy the first cute boots you saw, you researched,you thought, and you made a well reasoned investment in a really nice pair of boots that will serve you for years and that you had been looking for, for a while.

Rachel, you are not weird at all, but very thoughtful and sweet!! I would love a homemade card or letter any day. I'm sure your family and friends enjoy the cards.

My love and I don't go all out for Valentine's Day either because Valentine's Day is every day (or most of the days-LOL..). We do exchange handwritten love letters some years his are so... much better because he writes his love letter in form of a song and sings it with his guitar.

I swear if anyone is going to break my fear of hooking up with Mr. Singer or Mr. Viking (what are the sewing machine names of today?) it is you and all of your fun projects. When I mentioned to my mom about maybe coming over and playing on her machine she gave me the strangest look. A look of either fear or did I hear her correctly!

BTW making tents?? Do you think D would mind, you sharing a piece of his world when he gets back?

Love those cards you made with the stitching - I am sure all your friends who receive them will absolutely love them... I know I would. It's nice to remind your friends & family that you love them - we don't do it enough!

I don't think it's weird at all. How sweet of you to put so much thought and energy into them on 'love day'. Thoes cards that the both of you made are amazing...I'm in awe of the Lino skills! Dubai....umm....fabulous!

not weird...you love them. I just have a dislike to valentines day as it always seems the smug holiday. the pressure that you have to do great things if you are in a relationship and the pressure of "loser-dom" if you're not. but, what made me happy is that you do cards all the time for each other. that is very sweet.

Rachel, your cards are SOOO adorable! I love the contrast in textures and stiching. My favorite is the one with the mailbox filled with love :)

I don't send Valentine's cards to family (although I'm sure they would like it!), but my husband and I always make cards for each other for birthdays and holidays. There's nothing quite like a truly personal card :)

Hmm, that eggplant is very Tyrone. But I guess Dustin had a thing for veggies in high school, too! Rachel, your stitched cards make me swoon! Like I said, start a boutique with all these amazing crafts! Happy Valentine's Day!

i totally (used to) send valentines to my friends and fam. but this year, i'm taking a pass. we just got our new years cards out a month ago. cannot handle another mass mailing so soon. but i love yours. of course.

You are definitely not weird. Those cards are adorable. And I am kind of jealous of your linocut talents (yours and D's, collectively).

I haven't sent Valentines to friends in a long time. I was in choir in college, and whenever Valentine's day came around, I would buy Spiderman and Transformers-type cards for the guys and Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears-type cards for the girls, and everyone would find a card on their chair when we got to rehearsal. It was always fun, and some of my friends got REALLY excited about it.

Those are adorable. You should have a giveaway on your blog with some of your own work - I would definitely enter! That D is a very talented young man too. I wouldn't have the first clue how to make a linocut.

Hi Rachel, Just found my way to your blog today and wanted to say how lovely it is - in fact I need to spend some time having a proper look around...As to your question of whether you are wierd - nope I don't think so - in fact this is a lovely idea to give Valentines to your friends and family. Who wouldn't want a home made card?! :)

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